A Brief History of Time. by HAWKING, Stephen - 1988: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. Introduction by Carl Sagan. Illustrations by Ron Miller.

New York: Bantam Books,, 1988. tHE rare SUPPRESSED FIRST PRINTING Octavo. Original black cloth-backed black boards, titles to spines in silver. With the dust jacket. Full-page and in-text illustrations and diagrams. A hint of rubbing, minute discolouration to top and bottom edges, the binding firm and square, the contents unmarked and untoned. A near-fine copy in the near-fine jacket, minor creasing to edges, not price clipped. First US edition, the suppressed first printing, published simultaneously with the UK edition on 1 April 1988. The first printing was recalled from shops due to a number of errors: it lacks the contents and dedication pages, and figures 2.5 and 2.6 on page 27 are reversed. The dust jacket was also changed, with that of the suppressed printing being silver and the second printing dark blue. One of the most important scientific works of the second half of the 20th century and a masterpiece of scientific popularization, A Brief History of Time details for a lay readership the origin and eventual fate of the universe.